Our wing foiling team came out firing on all cylinders at the Mondial du Vent, the first stop of the 2024 GWA Wingfoil World Cup. The Leucate spot delivered, with strong winds reaching up to 40+ knots throughout the competition, and our team riders were on their new 2.0 and 2.5m² STRIKE. The conditions were optimal for riders to send big tricks in the Surf-Freestyle event, and they all certainly did.
Christopher Macdonald, the reigning World Champion, cruised through the entire event and made the most of these challenging conditions. Unbeaten through both days of competitions, the 18-year-old impressed the judges in each of his heats before finishing on a high note.
In the final, Chris stole the show with a huge frontflip into three consecutive front 360 rotations, which earned him a perfect 10 and helped him to a huge total score of 29.00 points, the highest of the competition.
“I’m super happy about my score,” he said. “I’ve been training the combos in Hood River, so I’m stoked to see them work out in competition. It was a really gnarly competition with over 50 knot gusts in the finals. I’ve struggled with this event over the past few years, but it feels really good to be on top now.”
Chris, who had finished fifth last year at this meet, clearly continues to lead the way and set the standard for the discipline, driving it towards excellence.
The American was joined on the podium by teammate Noé Cuyala, who had undoubtedly one of the best competitions of his career so far and had everyone talking from day one.
“I have been training a lot during the offseason at my home in Corsica,” he said after his first heat. “I have been very focused on getting consistent with the Frontside 1080, one of my favourite tricks, and also the Backflip Late 3. I am also really enjoying the Combo tricks, and I hope I can make it on the podium tomorrow.”
It was certainly a good omen. After landing an impressive Backflip to Backflip Combo in the semi-final, the 16-year-old qualified to his first GWA final. Despite crashing his first four trick attempts there, he quickly turned it around and put on a show-stopping performance to climb all the way up to second place. He notably landed one of the biggest frontside 1080s of the competition, earning him a 9.37.
Next Generation teammate Luca Vuillermet also showed tremendous improvement. Luca made it all the way to the semi-final, where he unfortunately found himself up against Noé amongst others, but he ultimately placed 7th. The 14-year-old also competed in the Freefly-Slalom event and finished 11th overall out of more than 40 competitors.
Finally, big congratulations to Ezio Bastianelli, reigning World Champion in the U14 category, who held his own in his first appearance in a senior competition and on the GWA tour.
Our team now heads to Tarifa for the next leg of the tour, with the competition window scheduled for May 1 – 4.
